Sydney C. Dubout

Contents

History

Sydney was born in Bacchus Marsh,in 1888 to Charles Edward Dubout and Alice Whitbourne. He married Nellie Templeton in 1916. They had at least one child, Nellie, who was born in Bacchus Marsh in 1920. He was a farmer.[1].At the time of his enlistment, he was 5 foot eleven inches tall, had a fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair.[2]

Sydney Dubout died on the 14th September 1937, aged 49, at the Prince of Wales Military Hospital, Randwick. He is buried at Botany Church of England Cemetery in New South Wales, Section DDD, Grave 65. [3]

His brother Vere Dubout was also enlisted.

Sydney and his brother Vere are both listed on the Roll of Honour for Bacchus Marsh, held by the RSL at Bacchus Marsh. His location tree in the Avenue of Honour at Bacchus Marsh is Tree Number S084.[4]

Military Experience

Corporal Sydney C. Dubout(3964) enlisted in the AIF on the 4th January 1916. The address he gave was in Sunshine and his age was 27 years and 8 months. His next of kin had been his father, but that was crossed out, and his wife N.M. Dubout was named as his next of kin.[5] He embarked on the HMAT Warildawith the 1st Reinforcements, 5th Tunnelling Company as a second Corporal at the end of May 1916.[6]. He was also listed as embarking with the No. 6 Tunnelling Company and reinforcements in June 1916, and Tunnelling Company and Reinforcements in July 1916.[7]

When he arrived in Plymouth he was admitted to hospital, then in mid October he continued on to France where he joined the 1st Entrenching Battalion. After ten days he was then attached to the 1st Canadian Tunnelling company.[8]
In early June 1916, he was attached to 2nd Tunnelling Company.
In September he was transferred to The 2nd Pioneer Battalion as a Corporal. [9]
On the 3rd January 1917, Corporal Dubout was admitted to the 3rd Auxiliary G.H in Brighton with acute bronchitis.[10] Sydney Dubout had a number of admissions to hospitals, both in England and France throughout 1917 and 1918, mainly due to illness.

He was ill again in March 1918, and admitted to the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station before being sent to England. In May of the same year he was admitted to hospital in France with a lymphoma chest, and in July he was sent back to England to the Red Cross Hospital in Winchester, with a gunshot wound to his left hand.[11] On the 21st July 1918 he was wounded in action in France (gassed). [12]

After discharge from hospital in August 1918, he left England on the City of Exeter in January 1919, and he was discharged from the AIF in April 1919 as medically unfit due to the gunshot wound to his left hand.[13]

See also

Sydney Dubout had been in Randwick Military hospital at the time of his death. [15]. According to an article in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miner's Advocate on Saturday 15th October 1838, Sydney Dubout had been in a Caulfield Military Hospital before moving to NSW. Before he died he had been receiving a full pension, but after he passed away his widow only received a half pension. It was stated, after a post-mortem, that Sydney had died from cancer, so his death was not as a result of his war service. His widow, with the help of the Returned Serviceman's League took the matter up with the Minister for Repatriation, and a new post-mortem was undertaken by a specialist, who stated that Sydney had not died as result of the cancer. His widow was subsequently awarded a full pension.[16]

Other links

Denise Grant 4th September 2014

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